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ESPN: Peyton Manning is Throwing the Football Again

INDIANAPOLIS -- Peyton Manning has some rare good news for the NFL's only winless team: His ramped-up rehabilitation program includes more throwing.

Coach Jim Caldwell said Wednesday that Manning has picked up his regimen, though the four-time league MVP was not scheduled to practice with his teammates Wednesday. It's still unclear when or if Manning will return to the practice field and what the repertoire includes, though he acknowledged two weeks ago that throwing more was the next step in his recovery.

"That's what he does," Caldwell said when asked about throwing the ball. "They have been working with him in that area. That's part of it, but it's nothing revolutionary."

Manning hasn't played in any games this season because of a nerve injury that caused weakness in his throwing arm.

He had surgery in May, and when that didn't alleviate the problem, Indy's franchise quarterback had a more invasive surgery, a single-level fusion, on Sept. 8. It was Manning's third neck surgery in 19 months.

On Dec. 1, Manning's doctor issued a statement saying the fusion had healed firmly and Manning could increase the intensity of his workouts.

That was the best news the Colts (0-13) have had in this miserable season. On Dec. 2, Manning acknowledged that additional throwing would be the next step in his recovery. Team officials have kept Manning on the active roster, hoping he could return to practice before the Jan. 1 season finale at Jacksonville.

How much more can Manning now do?

"Once he's fused, he's stable to play," said Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery and spine surgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center who did not treat Manning. Asked how long it would take Manning to regain the strength in his throwing arm, Cohen said: "I would suspect it probably happened while the bone was knitting."

The injury has created speculation on everything from Manning's possible return date to whether he has played his final snap for the Colts.

Last week, owner Jim Irsay confirmed what most people already suspected -- that Manning was unlikely to play in a game this season -- and it's still unclear if No. 18 will be playing in Indy in 2012.

Colts officials must decide by early March whether to pay a $28 million bonus or let Manning become an unrestricted free agent. Indy also will likely have the No. 1 pick in April's draft, a slot that is expected to be used on Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

Manning's father, Archie, last week told a radio show that he didn't think it would be a "great idea" for the two to be teammates, then backtracked and said he meant that Luck was too good to sit behind someone next season. Having both quarterbacks would be a costly venture, though team vice chairman Bill Polian has said the league's new rookie wage scale would make it a more palatable option.

"The payment to the first-round draft choice is far less than it was under the old agreement, so you could afford that," Polian told radio listeners Nov. 28. "I'm perfectly fine with that approach."

The quarterback decision could also dictate the most important choice -- whether Indy rebuilds with younger players or reloads to make another Super Bowl run with Manning.

Re: ESPN: Peyton Manning is Throwing the Football Again

This was rumored on 1070 The Fan yesterday on the 13th. Two different hosts were talking about getting tweets from people they trusted saying that Manning had been seen at 56th street working out with Clark and Collie. So while it really sounds like the Colts are releasing news they are really saving face because they got scooped and leaked on.

Re: ESPN: Peyton Manning is Throwing the Football Again

Where's everyone at now trying to say that he'll never play again?

I like this quote.

Once he's fused, he's stable to play," said Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery and spine surgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center who did not treat Manning. Asked how long it would take Manning to regain the strength in his throwing arm, Cohen said: "I would suspect it probably happened while the bone was knitting."

I hope some of you guys don't take your disappointment out on the family dog.

Re: ESPN: Peyton Manning is Throwing the Football Again

I hope some of you guys don't take your disappointment out on the family dog.

This does nothing to alleviate the worry about him retiring sooner rather than later. Of course at some point he was going to be throwing the football again. That never was in question. He would have to test his current throwing ability as well as chart progress as he regains form. The question is if the nerve regeneration will be sufficient for him to throw with the velocity and accuracy he's accustomed to and necessary to perform at a high level as well as whether the fusion will allow for the range of motion necessary for his QB position.

He or his doctor told us the other day he was cleared to begin throwing the ball so the article isn't really news except that it confirms the throwing has started. It doesn't say anything about the tightness of the spiral, the speed of the release, the velocity of the ball, the accuracy of the throws, or the progress being seen with those things as the rehab progresses. That information will be the real news story one way or the other.

Nuntius was right. I was wrong. Frank Vogel has retained his job.

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"A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, thatís teamwork."

Re: ESPN: Peyton Manning is Throwing the Football Again

“Throwing will be a part of this next progression,” Manning said. “That is somewhat critical to my job. I will be throwing and have been doing some throwing. We have to ramp that up a little bit and answer some more questions about where we are.”

That was posted on 12-2.

JMV broke the story, this time around, because of eye witnesses. If he was really struggling throwing the ball, I would think that the eye witnesses would have also mentioned that, considering that's a pretty big detail to leave out.

My point is that people were running around predicting doom and gloom and how Peyton should never play another down because his neck hadn't fully fused, and blah blah blah blah blah, and then we find out two weeks ago that he was right on track and he's right where he should be.

Just pointing out that all the doom sayers are gone, and they didn't have anything to stand on except some loud sports "experts" that have been more worried about selling headlines rather than being accurate in their reporting.

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Re: ESPN: Peyton Manning is Throwing the Football Again

There is still a way to go to see if Peyton returns to the old Peyton as far as arm strength and accuracy. This is straight from a neurosurgeon on Colts message board:

Pretty gutsy to start a post with "people, just stop talking" on a forum. Unfortunately your optimism does not equal facts, especially in the 3 key quoted statements you made. With all due respect on your efforts, your brief effort at medical research seems to lead to a more optimistic conclusion than anything that his doctors have said. I might invite you to sit down with some of my patients who have had only several days of pre-operative weakness and yet never returned to normal after "successful" surgery and 6 months of aggressive rehab. The nervous system is fragile, and ANY recovery (let alone complete recovery) is not a given.

The bone issue has been discussed extensively. Yes, it will eventually be stronger than the joint was, but not stronger than the vertebral body... and it will not be at its full strength even by august 2012. And you may want to search for the term "adjacent level disease" with respect to cervical fusion: likely, arthritic changes will accelerate at the nonfused joints (which he has already had nonfusion decompressive surgery on at least one of, by our best understanding).

I don't mean to dismiss your effort at a very careful post, but I find the lecture/rant tone wholly insulting. Read other posts a bit more and keep an open mind. We'll have to wait to see how he does. To date, the only feedback given regarding return of nerve function and subsequent muscle strength has not been encouraging, and it is late in the game to not be seeing recovery.